Growth Chart

{Pinterest} 

I think growth charts are so charming + sentimental.

Lately I've seen a lot of them around, like the one pictured above, that are wooden and look like giant rulers.

I've been so in love with these kinds of growth charts that I really wanted to make one for my own home. 

One that I could use to measure my own kids growth over the years.

So last week I made one.

I didn't take a lot of pictures to show how I made mine, but it's pretty simple.

The first thing I did was go to my local big box orange store and buy a pre-cut 6' tall piece of pine wood. {Cost:  $16.00  There are other kinds of wood that would work too that would be cheaper, but I liked the look and grain of the pine wood the best.}

Although the look of the natural wood is pretty, I wanted a darker finish, so I stained my board with a walnut stain.

I also wanted my wood to look a little aged.  So to do this I gave it a light sanding and used a hammer to put little dents all over it.  I also used a screw, turned on it's side, and hammered on top of it to give the wood a little bit of a "natural" character too.

{Before I go on, I have to apologize for these next few dark, grainy pictures.  I hung this growth chart in my basement next to our laundry room and that area does not get a ton of natural light.  Sorry!}

The next thing I did was measure every inch on the board with a measuring tape and mark it with a pencil.  With some stencils I bought at Hobby Lobby, I stenciled all the numbers and inch marks with black craft paint.  Because I was going to be hanging it six inches off the ground, I started my stencil measurements at six inches.  After all the stenciling was done and dried, I did a light sanding {by hand} over the numbers, to keep with that aged look.  Then I gave the whole board a couple of coats of lacquer in a matte finish, added a hanging bracket to the back and hung it on the wall.

I love how it turned out.

Right before dinner tonight, I had my kiddos come down stairs so I could  mark how tall they are now, and I added today's date so that I don't forget how old they are at each mark.   I can't wait to see how much they grow over the years!

I can already tell you that, knock on wood, in years to come, if there is ever a fire in our house, this is one of those things, besides my own family of course, that I am going to grab on the way out of the house to go with me.  It will be such a favorite keepsake of mine to someday see how little my children used to be and how much they've grown.  I love saving pictures of my children and little pieces of art that they make, etc.  But seeing how tall they once were at age eight, six, three, or whatever is going to be so cool and tangible too.


linked here:  The Shabby Nest